As expected, Samsung has fired back at Apple's efforts for legal sanctions against it in the federal case between the two companies.

In a new filing this evening, Samsung once again said it only sent out excluded trial evidence to members of the media because it had received requests from them for more information, and that said information had already been made public in earlier filings.

Samsung then pointed fingers back at the court for requiring that information to be public in the first place.

"In the days and weeks leading up to jury selection and Samsung's subsequent statement regarding public court proceedings, the court stressed the importance of making these proceedings public and denied both parties' motions to seal," Samsung said in its filing. "Indeed, the court told the parties that 'the whole trial is going to be open.'"

"In addition to lacking any merit, Apple's request is fatally flawed procedurally," Samsung said. "Apple has not complied with any of the rules for a motion before this court, or the due process requirements for obtaining what amounts to dismissal of Samsung's defenses."

The technicality claim is just the latest between the two companies, which have -- and continue to -- jockey for position to get various pieces of evidence included in the trial. In a filing earlier today, that included Samsung's prior art claim of tablets as seen in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey," a strategy the company pulled out in a court filing last August.

In a pair of follow-up filings, Samsung showed examples of various news outlets that covered pre-trial filings, as well as a proposed motion for U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh to strike Apple's filing from early this morning asking for the sanctions.

As a quick refresher on the trial: at stake is a potential sales ban on Samsung's phones if Apple wins, or what some experts estimate could be considerable licensing fees for Apple if the jury sides with Samsung. In either case, we're only at the beginning of a trial that is expected to run through most of August.

It all picks back up tomorrow morning with a continuation of the testimony of Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller. That is, if there aren't some more fireworks between the two tech giants first.

About the author

Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
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